Dear Congolese rebels, please stop using boys as child soldiers. But feel free to continue raping little girls. Sincerely, the International Criminal Court.

So the ICC handed down it's first verdict a few days ago; Thomas Lubanga, Congolese warlord, was found guilty.

Excellent! The man ruined lives for years, committed egregious acts of violence, and he deserves to be locked away for the rest of his piteous life.

He abducted children from homes and playgrounds, and recruited the boys as child soldiers, and turned the girls into sex slaves.

Yet was he found guilty of, in the ICC?

Recruiting and using child soldiers.

That's all.

Despite the fact that there was testimony and evidence proving that he did indeed recruit and use girls as sex slaves and used sexual violence against them. But he was not found guilty of this.

Why?

The prosecution did not bother to include those particular charges when it initially filed its case.

I am absolutely disgusted. What conceivable reason is there to include charges of using child soldiers, but NOT include charges of widespread sexual violence?

The boys have got their justice this week. What about the girls? What about the of girls who were brutally raped, gang-raped, mutilated, forced to deliver babies, and who died in childbirth? 

What about them? They are simply ignored by the international justice system?

If the liberal international courts won't fight for the rights of abused and enslaved women, who will?

What message does this verdict send to rebels and militias in the region, and around the world?

"Don't ever, EVER force boys to be soldiers for your armies, or the weight of the international justice system will come down upon you. But by all means, feel free to do as you like with the girls. We ignore that sort of thing".

It's high time that rape started being treated as the unforgivable atrocity it is, rather than just a symptom of war.

The ICC has failed to carry out justice, the prosecutors should be fucking ashamed of themselves.

Rape in chick shows VS guy shows.

I am disgusted and disturbed by the difference in the way rape is portrayed in female-specific shows, and male-specific shows. By 'female and male specific', I just mean that the shows' target audiences are female or male.

Now, let's look at rape in guy-films.

Sleepers; A bunch of boys are systematically raped by prison guards while they're in juvenile detention. They grow up, and coincidentally find their rapist. What do they do? The first one they see, gets shot multiple times in the groin and dies. As for the others, the boys (men, now) execute a brilliant plan to have them all thrown in jail for their crimes.

Pulp Fiction; One of the protagonists is raped by a band of thugs. He is rescued by his fellow, who kills most of the rapists. One is left, and the rescuer leaves the protagonist with a gun trained on the rapist... and it is indicated, in no uncertain terms, that the rapist is about to be tortured for his crimes.

Seems fair, right? Seems perfectly satisfactory.

Onto chick shows;

Desperate Housewives; Gabby's step father used to rape her when she was little. When she is an adult, he reappears in her life. Somehow, she ends up in the woods with him, holding a gun to his head. Does she shoot him? Even in the kneecap? No. Does she whimper ineffectually and run away? Yes.

Later, Carlos kills him. Carlos.

Private Practice; Charlotte is raped brutally. The rapist is, coincidentally, taken into custody in relation to some other crime. Somehow, people put two and two together, and Charlotte is asked to go and identify him in the lineup. Now, Charlotte is ordinarily portrayed as the tough-as-nails, hardline bitch of the practice.

Does she see him? Yes. Does she recognise him as the rapist? Yes. Does she identify him to the police as the rapist? .... No. Apparently she is too 'traumatised'. Too traumatised to identify her rapist and see him brought to justice, too traumatised to get him put behind bars so that he doesn't go on to rape other women. Nope, just too traumatised for all that.

Later, the rapist's girlfriend is the one who turns him in. He is in the hospital (for some reason), and Charlotte goes and visits him... to beat him to death? No. To... at least break his face? No.

What does she do?
"I forgive you".

Sons of Anarchy; The wife of the head biker is gang raped brutally. Later, she goes after one of the rapists with a gun. She is about to shoot him when she hears him on the phone to his son. The fact that he has a son, apparently stays her hand.

What is this?

In a world in which women are routinely, ROUTINELY, raped and brutalised, these shows encourage women to 'forgive' and NOT exact revenge? They attempt to humanise these rapists, these animals, by pointing out that they have families? Like that is somehow enough reason for them to go unharmed?

Whereas, by contrast, rape in guy-centric films is seen to be so grotesque that it warrants torture?

By all means, it DOES warrant torture, the guy-films have it spot on.

What the hell is this double standard? What are the writers of Desperate Housewives, Private Practice, and Sons of Anarchy thinking? In WHAT way is that a helpful, just, or desirable version of reality to present to the public?

Why I hate Sundays.

Have you ever noticed that the shows on TV on Sunday are absolute bullshit? This is what plays on Sundays on my TV, on various channels;

1. Sports.

Freakin' sports. Not even a wide variety of sports, no... just football/rugby/whatever you want to call it. Just a bunch of testosterone-y men in short shorts flailing around. All goddamned day.

2. OLD shows.

Like, really old. Black and white old. Shows with Elizabeth Taylor in them. Shows that make cultural references that we don't even get.

3. Third-rate comedies.

The kind that think pairing a fat guy with a beautiful girl is, in itself, hilarious. The kind that make frequent use of fart jokes. The kind that make all intelligent people groan and hastily change the channel before their IQ is dragged down further.

From this, I gather that networks, on Sundays, are catering to; men, old people, and idiots.

Maybe this arrangement is a remnant from the days when women stayed at home all week and watched TV (which is why I suspect soap operas air on daytime TV during the week), and Sunday was the mens' day to relax.

Maybe the networks believe that old people play bowls during the week, and watch TV on Sundays to give their rheumatoid limbs a rest.

Maybe they believe that Sunday is the day that idiots all over Australia sit down and watch the appropriately named idiot-box.

Whatever the reason, it's a pain in the arse.

Sunday is the day when party-goers of all ages are nursing their hangovers, hoping to be lulled into zombitude by something remotely interesting to watch.  Sunday is the day that people want to veg out in front of the TV before starting a new week. Sunday is the day that people spend with their families, doing familial things like being couch potatoes together.

Note to the networks; I hope you get sent to your own private hell, where you must watch stupidity masquerading as comedy, in black and white, for all eternity.

Baby butts.

I have long since had to swallow my disgust at the apparent prevalence of naked baby arses on television.

In everything from diaper ads, to moisturiser ads, marketers think the naked posteriors of miniature humans is the strongest selling point.

It's not cool. I'm not sure why advertising companies have deemed it okay, and even more unsure about why the general public has accepted it.

This is how baby butts are portrayed in the media. All airbrushed and pink and resting on plush carpet, I bet you think it looks just darling..

But do you know what it looked like a few moments prior?

A fountain of feces.

Because that's what butts are. I'm at a loss as to why baby bottoms are treated differently to adult bottoms. All bottoms, of all species, excrete waste, and most people find this disgusting. Yet are adult bottoms displayed in, say, Depends ads? Are adult bottoms displayed in panty-liner ads?

In no way is a crack of any kind, young or old, acceptable to me, because I know exactly what comes out of it.

Everybody knows, but they choose to ignore it.

The worst offenders? Baby-wipe ads. They are even more brazen. They actually show a hand, with a wipe in it, wiping the baby's crack. They are just inviting you to envision what the wipe is wiping, and what the wipe is covered in after the wiping has ended.

It's enough to make me dry-retch. I'm having a bit of a dry-retch just talking about it.

Everytime one coos and sighs indulgently at a baby's bottom, it is a willful denial of the knowledge that gross, unspeakable semi-solids exit the very body part you so adore, regularly.

It's a denial of the truth, and I am sick of it.

No longer do I want to be subjected to baby bottoms. No more.

They're not cute, they are yucky. If you like them, you are part of this baby-ass epidemic, and I condemn you.

Transformers 3 - Michael Bay is all kinds of chauvinist pig.

Last night I went and watched Transformers 3 - Dark of the Moon.

Now, I love Transformers, usually. But Michael Bay, the steaming turd, ruined what would otherwise have been an epic movie, by inserting his pointless sexist bullshit.

At first I didn't really care that he replaced Megan Fox with a similarly smoking hot girl who is way out of Shia LaBeouf's league. But I just lost my shit when it came to pass that this one was even more of a useless prop than the last one.

At least the earlier Transformers movies had Megan Fox DO something. Drive a truck backwards through rubble-littered streets, with a crippled transformer shooting shit to hell? That was badass. She contributed, at the very least. Even though she did it in skimpy outfits, perfect makeup, and suggestive body language, she contributed. 

New Girl, on the other hand... she is there to look sexy, to play the hapless victim, to provide the male lead an opportunity to show off his machismo, and to be the naive girl who accepts a Mercedes from her boss and believes that his intentions are purely platonic. The entirety of her dialogue consists of this;

 "Saaaave meeee Saaaammm!"

She is about a foot taller than him. SAVE YOURSELF, YOU AMAZONIAN IDIOT.

And what's more, not only does she do nothing of value in the entire movie, she actually hinders the main character in his noble pursuits.

"NO, Sam, don't go and save your friend! Stay here with meee!", all whilst clinging to his arm like an abandoned toddler.

In a pathetic and misguided attempt to add substance to this girl's dialogue, Bay then has her totter up to Megatron and tell him that he is Sentinel's bitch.

Oh, wise move! It's not as though the dude has a gigantic metal fist trained on your dainty little face, or anything. Do you have a death wish?

The only reason she isn't smushed like an insect? A convenient and timely distraction, so she can scurry away unscathed. Charming.

During the scenes where she is running to escape monstrous metal beasts, I was at least relieved to see that they did not have her attempt that in the ridiculous high heels she'd been wearing for the rest of the movie. Phew! He's not devoid of all sense, thankfully.

Fast forward to the scene at the end, where she is reunited with Sam (no spoiler alert, because this shit is predictable as hell), and voila! She is in 8-inch heels once again! Did she somehow have time to change into heels during her life-threatening ordeal? Are her shoes transformers? Doubt it. More likely, Bay is of the opinion that a female character cannot be truly complete without being elevated on ridiculous shoes, at the expence of practicality. Shocker.

At the happy-ending (no, not the Thai-massage kind) part of the movie, New Girl and Sam are reunited and embrace lovingly. Bumble-Bee, subtle as he is, looms between then, drops a few metal rings on the ground, and plays the wedding march while they're being all smoochy.

Unsurprisingly, New Girl is alight with glee and apparently overjoyed at the mere suggestion of a wedding, while Sam is all, "Whoa, slow down!".

Really? A world famous director cannot bring himself to stray from over-done stereotypes?

Drown yourself, Michael Bay. Nobody needs your patriarchal, chauvinistic bullshit. This is the 21st century. Try and keep up.